Mavra Ahmed is a Research Associate at the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Joannah and Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition, University of Toronto. Mavra has experience in food and nutrition policy and clinical nutrition with strong expertise in nutrition research methods. She has collaborated on interdisciplinary research with both private and public partners.
Mavra obtained her PhD from the University of Toronto, specializing in characterization of dietary assessments of Canadian Armed Forces and evaluation of novel technologies for dietary assessments. She also holds a CIHR Fellowship in the Strategic Training Program in Public Health Policy and a CIHR Fellowship in Artificial Intelligence for Public Health from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Her current research focuses on driving equity-focused policy shifts by determining the relationships between social determinants of health, dietary patterns/intakes and nutrition-related behaviours and knowledge to improve the health of vulnerable populations. She is fronting the Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds school nutrition research initiative that aims to provide a comprehensive overview of school food programs in Canada and identify best practices in relation to the design, delivery, and measurement of school food programs. Mavra has a passion for assessing the impact of digital technology for promotion of healthier dietary behaviours (currently, investigating the impact of an updated version of the smartphone app, FoodFlip©, on enabling consumers to make healthier food choices).
PubMed Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.